21st Century Answers to Today's Energy Questions

One of the topics that most fascinates me and that I find I can easily get my students interested in is energy. The students always seem to have a number of ideas on how to either conserve energy or how to use different materials, some renewable and some not, as a source of energy. With the increase in the number of car manufacturers who are producing electric cars, advances in solar cell technology and its usage in neighborhoods across the county, and increasing government support of energy conserving efforts the students are very well aware of the concerns that many Americans have about the long term sustainability of fossil fuels at our rate of usage.

One of the 21st century tools that the students can use to gain more insight and facilitates the students learning of the concepts surrounding the topic and also provide an avenue for them to investigate on their own is the website http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=2. The site has valuable resources on all sources of energy as well as basic information on energy itself. It also provides charts and graphs for each topic area as well as games and activities for all grade levels including science fair experiments that the students can complete that relate to energy.

Another tool to use is http://www.neok12.com/Energy-Sources.htm. This site provides information about energy sources as well as alternative energy sources. The rather cool thing about this site is that it also includes videos on the different types of energy sources as well as the ability to create presentations for school and quizzes to share with friends as well. This will intrigue the more andvanced student and the videos will allow the strongly visual learner to fully grasp the many concepts covered in the discussion/debate about energy.

What is the best insulator?

For week four of class the task was to test four different materials to be used as insulators of cups of hot water. Each cup had the same amount of hot water and were lined up side by side on the counter. The only difference was the material chosen to cover each cup. For my materials I chose a Ziploc bag, Aluminum foil, a sheet of paper towel folded into four, and a Styrofoam plate. Prior to setting up the experiment I hypothesized that the aluminum foil would be the best insulator because of its use as a conductor of heat as well. However, after having the water sit the required 30 minutes I checked the temperature with a basic thermometer and lo and behold I found that the best insulator of the items I selected was the Ziploc bag. Coming in a close second was the Styrofoam plate. I was more than a little shocked that the Ziploc bag did the better than the aluminum foil which is used in kitchens across the country, and I dare say across the world. I recall my mom sending food to neighbors who were shut in and the food would be covered in foil to seal in the heat. Maybe I should tell my mom to use Ziploc bags next time.

This experiment led me to question if the same would be true with other materials that needed to stay warm. What about pizza or hot wings? I believe that because those food items are solid they will maintain their heat much better and the best insulator for these items may very well not be a ziplock bag. I will post an update to this blog once I have completed the same experiment with either pizza or hotwings. As is I may have to convince my hubby to throw out the well balanced dinner plans one night so that I can run my experiment.